-- Near Sultan Abdallah, two strikes
suppressed an ISIL rocket position and an ISIL mortar position.

The strike release published on Nov. 16
includes a French strike listed as “Near Ar Raqqah, one strike struck an ISIL
storage depot.” After further coordination with the French Ministry of Defense,
CJTF-OIR officials said they have determined that France conducted two separate
strikes on two different targets. The first target was an ISIL storage depot and
the second strike against an ISIL command and control node.

Yes, more bombings.

It's apparently the only thing in Barack's tool box.

More bombings at a time when Robert Burns (AP) estimates the average number of bombs dropped on Iraq and Syria by coalition forces in one month is 2228, that the US government is spending $11.1 million a day of taxpayer dollars and has spent $5 billion alone "since August 2014."

And what is the result?

The Associated Press words it carefully: "But what has been the result? In a word, stalemate, although U.S.
military officials say they see the tide gradually turning in their
favor."

In straight forward words?

Operation Inherent Failure.

On CNN this week, we had the always ready to wrap her legs around a war Christian Amanpour insisting on "an honest conversation"

She was speaking to Anderson Cooper on Monday, during CNN's endless
Paris coverage, and insisting that Barack Obama's strategy or plan for
addressing the Islamic State was a failure.

It is a failure.

How many moths have we been calling it Operation Inhernet Failure here?

Thanks for joining the conversation, Christiane, but I won't let you hijack it.

Barack's 'plan' has been non-stop bombings. It is a military plan.

Despite the fact that he insisted two months before he started the
bombings that the only answer was a political solution (June 19, 2014,
he said it).

So Barack's 'plan' is a failure but it's a failure because he's spent
about 16 months bombing and finding other countries to bomb Iraq.

He's failed tto address the issues in any way that have resulted in a political solution.

Now if the whores who see their poster boy Barack as more important than
Iraqi life could have been honest, I wouldn't be alone in making this
argument.

But the left or 'left' seems paralyzed when it comes to sticking up for any belief if it conflicts with their It Girl Barack.

The military plan he's executed was always going to be a failure.

If, like the War Hawks, you've accepted the military plan of Barack's as
the answer, then of course you will insist for more military action.

Less than 24 hours after the terrorist attack by ISIS in Paris on
Friday night killed 129 people and wounded hundreds more, the chief
liberal opinion writers in the United States are calling for a massive
escalation of the imperialist interventions in Syria and Iraq.

[. . .]In their drive for an expanded war, no serious questions are raised
about what lies behind the attacks, or about the impact of more than 14
years of unending war in the Middle East as part of the efforts of the
US and its allies to assert hegemonic control over the region and its
strategic resources.Among the chief warmongers are the New York Times’ Roger Cohen and the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen, two journalists who represent what passes for liberal democratic opinion in the United States.Over the last two decades there has not been a single American
military intervention or imperialist provocation that either Cohen has
not supported. In their endorsement and promotion of intervention in
Iraq in 2003 on the basis of lies about nonexistent “weapons of mass
destruction,” they bear significant responsibility for the catastrophe
in the Middle East which they now seek to escalate.

If you want to talk about war and further war, endorsing it, the media has a spot for you front and center. But if you want to question this war -- not to increase military action but to insist upon political solutions -- there's no space for you among all the papers and all the channels throughout the United States.

The conformist cry for more war passes not only for 'insight' but also for 'diversity' in the conformist and limited media landscape that bullies the people.

At the State Dept there was no time to talk about Iraq.

Not a word on Iraq.

However, today's Pentagon Press briefing did acknowledge Iraq and was conducted by Colonel Steve Warren in a video conference from Baghdad. He started with some opening remarks.

Colonel Steve Warren: Moving on to Iraq, we'll start in Mosul, which is
circle number one, blue one in the upper right-hand corner of your
screen. That's Mosul, where we continue our disruption operations in
the Tigris River Valley, which includes Baiji, Mosul and Hawaija. We've
conducted 105 airstrikes since October 15.

The vicinity of Sinjar, further west, which is star number three, the
coalition has conducted 290 airstrikes since October 15. Peshmerga have
secured Sinjar, established a new forward line of troops and continue
their clearance operations there.

Finally, along the Euphrates River Valley, which includes Ramadi,
Fallujah, and Abu Hayat, we've conducted over 190 airstrikes since
October 15.

So these are all the whats, and the important, I think, question is
always the why. And the why is -- and the why I tell you all of this is
because it's -- I think it's important for everyone to understand our
overarching objective, which is to partner with indigenous ground
forces, enable those indigenous ground forces to conduct offensive
operations and then provide coalition air power on top of those
offensive operations.

As indigenous friendly forces maneuver against our enemy, it causes our
enemy to move. The enemy has to react, and as soon as the enemy reacts,
we kill them from the air. So I think that's my overall message here.
This is an operation, it -- it spans the breadth and the depth of this
battlefield, now going as far south as the tri-border area, as far west
as the Mara line and as far east as -- as Baiji.

There was more but that was the only section on Iraq.

It was spin and Warren sounded on the defensive, suggesting that even he couldn't believe his own spin.

Most of the questions at today's briefing focused on Syria. We'll note two exchanges on Iraq.

I was just curious if you could give us an update on the operation in
Sinjar that began last week. How close are we to -- or are the Kurdish
forces to completely liberating that -- that town. And then, just as a
follow-up, if you could just give us a picture of any sort of tangible
results of difficulty that ISIS is now having to resupply their
population center as they hold like Mosul after this operation started?

COL. WARREN: So, Sinjar is liberated. The Peshmerga forces are now
going through the laborious process of identifying and reducing, or
clearing the IEDs, booby traps, et cetera that -- that ISIL left behind.

As far as the impact on Mosul, certainly, as is always the case with
logistics, it won't be instantaneous, but, you know, having severed that
main artery between Raqqa and Mosul, it will force ISIL's resupply on
logistics operations off the high-speed avenue of approach, and they'll
have to now move through these ratlines and smuggling routes that go
through the desert south of Sinjar. This will take a -- what normally
would be a several-hour drive from Raqqa to Mosul, will turn it into
potentially days.

So this will have an impact. This will cause them -- it will cause our
enemy to be less able to do what they want to do, which is to mutually
reinforce their own position. Again, this is -- this is the operational
nature of what we're doing now. So, pressure in Iraq; pressure in
Syria; pressure in the north; pressure in the south.

And what this does -- and all those pressures, primarily by ground
forces, but all of those pressures cause -- cause the enemy to have to
make very difficult decisions. And cause the enemy to not necessarily
be able to help other portions of his organization.

And by continuing this ground pressure, what we see is that as you're
being attacked from the ground, as was the case in -- in Sinjar, as was
the case in Al-Hawl, as was the case in Al Tam -- the enemy will move,
you know, as a reaction to the ground pressure that's been placed on
them. And that causes them to pop up and become a very easy target for
our air power to kill. So this is the beauty of, you know, these
combined air-ground operations.

So, we don't have specific statistics yet, a percentage of how much
Mosul will be constricted by the seizure of Sinjar, but what we do know
is it will drive ISIL off the main road and onto the back roads which
will slow their operations substantially.

In addition to being asked about Sinjar, Warren was also asked about Ramadi which fell to the Islamic State in April.

Q: Steve, Tom Bowman again.

I wonder if you could give us an update on Ramadi. I think last time we
talked, you said they'd almost encircled the city, except for the
bridge over the Euphrates and I think trouble with the river itself.
And if they have completely encircled it, why haven't they gone in yet?

COL. WARREN: So the western access has seen some fairly good activity.
I think I mentioned that Camp Warar has not only been seized, but now
cleared of nearly 30 -- I think it was 24, 26 IEDs that have been
discovered buried at Camp Warar, which is right on the west bank of the
river and overlooks the main city.

The CPS then kind of looped around and now they're working up through
the -- there's a neighborhood that runs parallel to Camp Warhar.
They're working their way up through that.

The northern access has met with some very stiff resistance, frankly.
The enemy has put up a good fight here in the last couple of days, so
they're continuing -- I think it was about a 200-meter movement here
yesterday. So this is -- this is slow and sometimes incremental work,
but you know, they're continuing.

We believe that all the piece are in place, you know? We've -- Iraq has
asked for some additional enablers, additional air, et cetera. We're
providing that. So we believe that all the pieces are in place and that
the Iraqis have a plan that's -- that's a good plan and workable and
it's time for them to execute it.

Q: Major General Rich Clark of the 82nd that -- the Iraqi security
forces outnumber ISIS about 10 to one. If that's the case, I don't
understand the stiff resistance if you're 10 to one.

COL. WARREN: Yeah, that's -- that's 10 to one, total. But you know, in
any attack, right, there's always a point to that spear. When that
point to that spear gets blunted against some stiff resistance, it could
-- it could stop all the rest. That's the case here.

You know, the enemy, as I've described, I think -- once or twice before
has put in some fairly complex obstacles and then they are fanatical
defenders of Ramadi.

Now, that said, we -- we've provided some very substantial air power,
some very good training and some specialized equipment to help with
these problems -- you know, with -- with this -- with the problem of
this integrated defense.

So, again, we believe all the pieces are in place, and that it -- it's
time for the Iraqis to -- to make this final move and -- and get Ramadi
cleared. We do believe that.

"We do believe that."

I guess you have to at this point -- in order to justify the lack of success, you have to believe that.

The rush of the stupid to find something -- anything to hug -- is always something to roll the eyes over.

Currently, a number of idiots have bought into the propaganda that Yazids are ponies and rainbows and we must support them.

Yazidi are burning down mosques in Sinjar. The start of blanket immunity against Sunni for ISIS. Hope you're happy with your lies. #Iraq

5 retweets1 like

They aren't saints and anyone surprised that a persecuted people could carry out retaliation and worse clearly missed the history of the state of Israel.

Monday, AFP reported that the Yazidis 'celebrated' their return to Sinjar by looting Sunni homes and setting them on fire.

AFP also reminds, "Rights group Amnesty International documented attacks by Yazidi
militiamen against two Sunni Arab villages north of Sinjar in January,
in which 21 people were killed and numerous houses burned."

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.